Daily Research News Online no. 2801 - E-Government Trends Across the World

E-Government Trends Across the World

December 12 2003

The use of e-government in Britain has increased by five percentage points from 13 per cent of adults in 2002 to 18 per cent in 2003. This compares with worldwide use of online government services of 31 per cent, according to new research conducted by TNS.

Despite having one of the largest proportions of internet users worldwide and advanced internet access technology, Britain was ranked 23rd out of 32 countries surveyed in using e-government facilities. Major markets such as Germany (26 per cent of adults using e-government), France (35 per cent), the US (44 per cent) and Canada (51 per cent) all had much higher take-up of e-government services than adults in Britain. Scandinavian countries still lead the field in e-government use, with more than six out of ten adults in Denmark (63 per cent) and Norway (62 per cent) using government services online.

While Britain is clearly lagging behind other international markets, it is encouraging to see that levels of use of e-government are increasing. In contrast to Britain, growth in the use of e-government has slowed in many markets, particularly in America (from 43 per cent of adults in 2002 to 44 per cent in 2003) and Germany (from 24 per cent to 26 per cent over the same period). Indeed, in Singapore, usage levels have remained static at 53 per cent and levels have decreased in Turkey, (from 13 per cent in 2002 to nine per cent in 2003) suggesting weakening demand for accessing and supplying government information online.

One of the prime objectives for government organisations, at both a national and local level, has been to encourage users to provide personal information and make transactions online. However, interaction with government worldwide is still primarily to access rather than to provide information. At a global level, almost one quarter of e-government users (24 per cent) use the service to 'seek information' with less than one in ten adults using e-government to 'provide personal information' (nine per cent) or 'make online payments' (eight per cent).

One key factor limiting the release of personal information to government is likely to be the perceived security of online information. However, the study shows that perceptions of safety have improved in the past year, increasing from 19 per cent in 2002 to 24 per cent of adults in 2003 who said they would 'feel safe' providing personal information online. Perhaps not surprisingly, people felt safest using online government services in those countries with some of the largest proportions of e-government users, namely Denmark (48 per cent), Singapore (44 per cent) and Norway (40 per cent).

Despite having a relatively low use of e-government, Britain has one of the highest proportions of adults who feel that providing personal information online to government is safe. Some 30 per cent of adults in Britain perceive the use of e-government to be safe compared to less than 20 per cent of adults in France (18 per cent), Spain (17 per cent) and Germany (16 per cent). While safety issues may be a significant concern restricting the use of e-government for many countries, this appears to be of less importance for adults in Britain.

Susannah Quick, Director, TNS's Polling, Social and Government division, commented 'While Britain has achieved important growth in the uptake of e-government services in 2003, the findings show that Britain is still a long way behind the global average. The large amounts of investment by the Government are likely to have contributed to this growth but there is still a long way to go in order to bring Britain in line with levels of e-government usage in other markets. At a global level, growth rates of e-government have slowed in many markets, suggesting that more needs to be done to increase take-up. Improved internet access and enhanced connection speeds are likely to be instrumental in achieving this, but one of the main challenges still facing governments is to convince existing and potential users that it is safe to provide their personal details online'.

She concluded 'At a time when members of the public are increasingly turning to the internet as an information resource, there is also growing concern about access to personal information by hackers and spam mailers. Governments around the world need to allay public fears by communicating the security measures which are in place to prevent access to personal details so that confidence is restored'.

The Government Online (GO) Study was undertaken by the Polling, Social and Government division of TNS, via telephone and face-to-face interviews with 31,823 people across 32 countries or territories between July and October 2003.

A global summary can be downloaded at www.tns-global.com/gostudy2003